Caroline Humphrey | University of Cambridge (original) (raw)
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In the proposed volume the authors aim to contribute to the anthropological understanding of trus... more In the proposed volume the authors aim to contribute to the anthropological understanding of trust in juxtaposition to the economy and the state. They focus on the specific economic exchanges and activities on the Sino-Russian border, agents of which might have - and do have - different reasons to mistrust each other. Activities at this location, we argue, destabilize the usual ideas of marginality and scale. This border could be considered geographically peripheral, and yet through lengthy trade routes (e.g. linking production in South China with consumption in Siberia, or the effects of new customs regulations that route goods via Moscow) it is also a nexus with a Eurasian reach.
History and Anthropology, 2017
Focaal, 2010
From a distance—I was glued to television and newspapers in Cambridge—nothing dramatic seemed to ... more From a distance—I was glued to television and newspapers in Cambridge—nothing dramatic seemed to be happening in the Siberian provinces of Russia in 1989. All attention was focused on the amazing events in Germany, Czechoslova- kia, Romania, and Bulgaria; yet I remember not only my astonishment at the tumbling of regimes but also constant twinges of regret and impatience that I could not be there.
BRILL eBooks, Oct 31, 2018
History and Anthropology, 2021
Economies of Favour after Socialism, 2017
Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal 1996 9 86 106, 1996
Focaal, 2009
This article discusses a vast, new and semi-legal marketplace of shipping containers on the outsk... more This article discusses a vast, new and semi-legal marketplace of shipping containers on the outskirts of Odessa, Ukraine. It is suggested that such markets, which have sprung up at several places in post-socialist space where routes intersect, have certain features in common with mediaeval trade fairs. However, today's markets have their own specificities in relation to state and legal regimes, migration, and the cities to which they are semi-attached. The article analyzes the Seventh Kilometer Market (Sed'moi) near Odessa as a particular socio-mythical space. It affords it own kind of protection and opportunities to traders, but these structures may be unstable in a changing economic climate.
American Ethnologist, 2009
Post-Socialist Peasant?, 2002
What if we start by leaving aside objective definitions of the peasantry and ask instead which pe... more What if we start by leaving aside objective definitions of the peasantry and ask instead which people call themselves peasants in Russia today? It is important to realise that 'peasant' has become a fully operational category in post-socialist Russia. The agricultural reforms of the early 1990s aimed to replace the collective and state farms with financially independent small farms. A certain number of these were created all over the country and they were called 'peasant economies' (krest'yanskiye khozyaistvo). Collective and state farms did not totally disappear; but most were dissolved and reconstituted, and these 'privatised' organisations were also termed associations of peasant economies of one type or another. Russia therefore should be full of people who identify themselves as peasants. Yet this is not so. The explanation cannot be simple, for older concepts of the peasantry (krestyanstvo) smoulder behind the new label. This chapter explores why self-identification with the peasantry is so fragile and changeable in contemporary Russia, and it shows how official use of the word 'peasant' masks fundamental contradictions in the agricultural reforms.
In the proposed volume the authors aim to contribute to the anthropological understanding of trus... more In the proposed volume the authors aim to contribute to the anthropological understanding of trust in juxtaposition to the economy and the state. They focus on the specific economic exchanges and activities on the Sino-Russian border, agents of which might have - and do have - different reasons to mistrust each other. Activities at this location, we argue, destabilize the usual ideas of marginality and scale. This border could be considered geographically peripheral, and yet through lengthy trade routes (e.g. linking production in South China with consumption in Siberia, or the effects of new customs regulations that route goods via Moscow) it is also a nexus with a Eurasian reach.
History and Anthropology, 2017
Focaal, 2010
From a distance—I was glued to television and newspapers in Cambridge—nothing dramatic seemed to ... more From a distance—I was glued to television and newspapers in Cambridge—nothing dramatic seemed to be happening in the Siberian provinces of Russia in 1989. All attention was focused on the amazing events in Germany, Czechoslova- kia, Romania, and Bulgaria; yet I remember not only my astonishment at the tumbling of regimes but also constant twinges of regret and impatience that I could not be there.
BRILL eBooks, Oct 31, 2018
History and Anthropology, 2021
Economies of Favour after Socialism, 2017
Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal 1996 9 86 106, 1996
Focaal, 2009
This article discusses a vast, new and semi-legal marketplace of shipping containers on the outsk... more This article discusses a vast, new and semi-legal marketplace of shipping containers on the outskirts of Odessa, Ukraine. It is suggested that such markets, which have sprung up at several places in post-socialist space where routes intersect, have certain features in common with mediaeval trade fairs. However, today's markets have their own specificities in relation to state and legal regimes, migration, and the cities to which they are semi-attached. The article analyzes the Seventh Kilometer Market (Sed'moi) near Odessa as a particular socio-mythical space. It affords it own kind of protection and opportunities to traders, but these structures may be unstable in a changing economic climate.
American Ethnologist, 2009
Post-Socialist Peasant?, 2002
What if we start by leaving aside objective definitions of the peasantry and ask instead which pe... more What if we start by leaving aside objective definitions of the peasantry and ask instead which people call themselves peasants in Russia today? It is important to realise that 'peasant' has become a fully operational category in post-socialist Russia. The agricultural reforms of the early 1990s aimed to replace the collective and state farms with financially independent small farms. A certain number of these were created all over the country and they were called 'peasant economies' (krest'yanskiye khozyaistvo). Collective and state farms did not totally disappear; but most were dissolved and reconstituted, and these 'privatised' organisations were also termed associations of peasant economies of one type or another. Russia therefore should be full of people who identify themselves as peasants. Yet this is not so. The explanation cannot be simple, for older concepts of the peasantry (krestyanstvo) smoulder behind the new label. This chapter explores why self-identification with the peasantry is so fragile and changeable in contemporary Russia, and it shows how official use of the word 'peasant' masks fundamental contradictions in the agricultural reforms.